A sign in front of the Waverly Business Center lists the New England Compounding and other business in Framingham, Mass. / AP / FILE

Written by

Walter F. Roche Jr.

The Tennessean

A federal judge in Boston is considering whether to freeze $461 million worth of assets from the owners of a drug compounding firm blamed for a nationwide outbreak of fungal meningitis that has sickened 490 people and killed 34, including 13 in Tennessee.

U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV took the seizure request under advisement Tuesday after a two-hour hearing. He scheduled an additional session in the case for Nov. 28.

The lead plaintiffs in the class-action suit are a New Hampshire man and a Pennsylvania woman, both of whom contend they contracted fungal meningitis after injections with a steroid produced by New England Compounding Center.

The drug compounding firm is owned by two Massachusetts families, the Caddens and Conigliaros, who are related by marriage.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs have estimated the combined value of the assets at $461 million, including the Caddens’ $1.8 million home in Wrentham, Mass., and Gregory Conigliaro’s $3.5 million home in Southborough, Mass., with six bedrooms, nine bathrooms and more than 11,000 square feet of space.

Gregory Conigliaro also owns a Cape Cod home worth $700,000 according to court filings.

The Caddens, according to the filing, also purchased and renovated a Rhode Island shore property.

Cited in the brief was the fact that one of the Conigliaro brothers and an officer of one of the related companies is Douglas Conigliaro, a licensed physician who was fined by the Florida medical board due to complaints about his failed attempt to implant a pump to deliver painkillers to a 64-year-old female patient.

A “letter of concern” was also issued against the physician by Florida authorities.

A civil suit stemming from the same case was settled for $1 million, Florida records show.

Douglas Conigliaro, described in the briefs as “a disgraced anesthesiologist,” heads an affiliated firm, Medical Sales Management, which acts as the sales arm for New England Compounding and Ameridose LLC, another drug compounding firm owned by the same two families.

Both Ameridose and New England Compounding have shut down and recalled all of their products.

The plaintiffs’ lawyers conceded in their brief that even with all the assets and yet-to-be-determined insurance coverage, it is unlikely to be enough to satisfy all the claims.

Lawyers for New England Compounding argued that it would be premature to seize the assets because no charges against the company have been proven.

Currently, more than 50 suits are pending in state and federal courts across the country, including 13 filed in circuit court in Nashville and a dozen before Saylor.